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The first chemistry read for Heated Rivalry was “lightning in a bottle," according to casting directors
The chemistry between Heated Rivalry's Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie was so hot that it nearly melted the ice they were skating on.
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Any romance show needs that electric spark between the two leads. If viewers don’t believe that they’re crazy about each other, the rest of the show just falls apart. So, when doing auditions for the Heated Rivalry cast, the casting directors made sure to check the chemistry between their two potential leads, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams. As fans can probably guess from the way the show has been received, the chemistry read for Heated Rivalry went pretty well.
During a recent interview, Heated Rivalry casting directors Jenny Lewis and Sara Kay were asked to talk about the chemistry read between the two leads, Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams. Don’t expect it to show up online any time soon, though, as Sara Key said it was “in a box in our office with a lock and key.” However, they did admit that they knew their Shane and Ilya were going to sizzle when they were on screen together right from the start.
“I don’t even know how you talk about it,” Jenny Lewis explained. “It’s so different for us as casting directors, because we spend all our time doing this, watching auditions, watching actors come together. So I feel like we’re looking at it from a very different technical place than when we watch the finished product, where we are actually just like crazed fans ourselves when we actually get to see it, because it’s so different from the audition process. So I feel like you’re sort of like a nervous parent when you’re watching the chemistry read."
"You’re like, ‘Okay, I want this working and they don’t fuck it up, and Jacob [Tierney, series creator] doesn’t think I’m insane.’ To be fair, I think Jacob spent quite a bit of time talking to both of them before we were in the chemistry read. And so I think they were very comfortable by the time we got to the chem with each other, Hudson and Connor, so that they were just in it. They just went for it.”
“But if I may say, a lot of times you’ll see a chemistry,” Sara Key added. “And you kind of are like, ‘Well, I guess, yeah, that works.’ It seems like it works. But I think in this case, yeah – you can just feel it.”
“But it was still lightning in a bottle,” Lewis said.
“Couldn’t have expected it,” Key agreed.
Getting the casting right is key in a show like Heated Rivalry, so we imagine it was something of a relief that the directors could see the chemistry between the two leads from the very start. A second season is apparently in the works, though it doesn't have a release date yet.
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